16 September 2014

In the past, Thanksgiving, and to a lesser extent Halloween, was my raison d'etre during the fall. I would cook, plan, and cook some more with an eye to making the largest number of Thanksgiving desserts, while cooking just enough savory food to pretend I wasn't just being dreadfully unhealthy.

Now there is a birthday (well, a second one) to celebrate just as fall starts, so there are celebrations for each month of the fall season. So, while I could focus on fall cleaning (like spring cleaning) or some other winterizing activity, I am going to think about the celebrations to come in this week's 10 for Tuesday: 10 things you do to get your home ready for fall.

1. Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day. Technically this day isn't part of fall, but it is the closest "holiday" to Q's birthday. This year, this means he is getting a pirate-themed birthday party. As I explained to Chris, the theme is for us. It gives us an idea of what kind of decorations we want and allows us to do things like shape cakes and all sorts of fun things.

2. Make lists. There are grocery lists (and grocery shopping), gift lists, homework lists, church-activity lists, parent-group lists. I feel like my life is governed by lists. They make everything a little more manageable, as long as I don't get overwhelmed by the list making process first.

3. Plan menus. We've started menu planning, which is handy for weekly menus. I don't know if it really is saving us money in the grand scheme of things, but it is making it easier for us to go grocery shopping and makes it easier to not have produce go to waste. The big menus though are the birthday party menu and Thanksgiving.

4. Plan my knitting. This one is a little harder to manage. I want to do gift knitting, but I cannot let gift knitting interfere with either my family life or doing well in my classes. I have a potential list of about 10 items to knit. I expect that the number that will be done this year is significantly lower. Probably closer to 5.

5. Get ready for Halloween. I don't know yet if we are going to go out, or if we will dress up and just answer the door for Trick or Treaters. Either way can be a lot of fun.

6. Door things? In Massachusetts, we lived in an area with a mix of apartments (the standard 3-floor walkups mostly) and single family homes in a large mixture of styles. It wasn't hard to find our house, because the house didn't look like any of the ones nearby. But in our new neighborhood, the houses all have a sameness to them even when the yards or the features are all slightly different. This place is the land of the door wreath, so I am contemplating making or buying a couple of wreaths or hangings to make it easier for people to find the place. Not contemplating very hard though...

7. Cleaning. I love having a clean home, but I don't have the time or energy to put into keeping it that way. Or the inclination. Sadly, I want to have little cleaning fairies come out while we are changing diapers and pick up the mess in the hallway or put the dishes away. There will be a bit of this, but mostly during periods when I have a bit more time off.

8. Studying. I know it isn't really getting the house ready, but being consistent in my homework and studying so far is giving me a lot more time to be with my family. Putting it off might feel like a nice thing when I get to spend the evening watching movies, but if it means that I have to spend baby-waking hours doing homework instead of cuddling, playing or watching his first steps... well, it is all about making priorities.

9. Test recipes. I'd elaborate, but really I just like to try out a lot of new recipes in the fall.

10. Finish things. I have a few projects that I should finish, though I don't really want to do any of the old things I started between 2007 and 2013 (wow, Ravelry is horrible for showing me things I didn't really want to know).

09 September 2014

There are tons of books I love, though I'll admit that between having a baby and going back to school if it isn't a board book or a textbook I don't really have time for it. I feel weird apologizing for having a baby when every day with him is one of the most awesome experiences of my life. So, in honor of parents and babies everywhere, here are my list of books (of the chewing variety and beyond) that have stayed with me.

1. Your Personal Penguin. This is the first book I remember reading to Q, and we read it to him nearly every night. It was also one of the first books where we got a definite response. I started to read and he turned his head in a beeline towards me. Super sweet.

2. Continuing in the penguin theme, And Tango Makes Three. My husband bought this one from the UU bookstore after service one day because he knows I like penguins. It is a beautiful story and definitely one that encourages acceptance. Not a board book, so this one needs to be held with long arms to prevent incidental chewing.

3. The Fairy Tale Tree. This is a book I read incessantly growing up. It's a huge collection of fairy tales from around the world widely ranging in length. It has both small paintings inside and fold out pages with pictures. It was published in the 1960s, so I was ecstatic when I was able to find a copy for us via bookfinder.com (only go there if you are brave or have more willpower than I).

4. Serendipity books. I borrowed a lot of these from the library growing up. I don't remember all of them, but I remember Leo the Lop and The Muffin Dragon. We don't have any of these yet, and I don't really know how easy any of them are to get.

5. The Velveteen Rabbit. A lot of the books I read to Q I know he isn't really ready for. They are chapter books or just long. I read this one to Q while I waited for my last dental appointment, which was a bad idea. Stories that make you cry just don't need to be read in waiting rooms.

6. Nancy Drew. The old ones where the words were longer than two syllables. I also liked the cross-over books with the Hardy Boys. Other mysteries I enjoyed were were the Bobbsey Twins and the Hollisters. I loved books that involved twins.

7. Witch Week. It is part of the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones. I love Diana Wynne Jones's books, but this is only one of the Chrestomanci books that I read growing up. I was in middle school or junior high, and it really spoke to the outcast me I was at the time.

8. Le Petit Prince. This is the first book I ever read in a language other than English. I originally read it in French and then later read parts of it in Japanese. I have also watched it in French. It is a wonderful story, though I'll admit that I have never read it in English (link is to the French PDF). Of course, reading it in Japanese was a much harder process, which is why I've only read parts (see also, I have read parts of a random book on stress control in Japanese, because all it takes to get me interested is Japanese).

9. The Westing Game. I cannot explain why I loved this book so much, but even now as an adult I love to reread this story. I love the characters with their quirky habits. While I loved Turtle and still do, I also really like Sydelle, because at one point my mom and I were learning shorthand together.

10. This one is kind of a tie. Biting the Sun is a utopian distopia. I read this a few years ago, and it gripped me with its story of how being able to do whatever you want eventually falls flat and something a bit more concrete is desirable. Snow Queen was one of the first science fiction stories I remember reading. I haven't read it in a few years, but I loved the play between technology, wealth and corruption and the two clashing cultures. I haven't read it in years, but it is one of the titles I periodically reread.

03 June 2014

This picture has nothing to do with today's 10 for Tuesday topic. I just love my little boy.

So, this week's 10 for Tuesday is 10 Bands or Individuals you've seen in concert.

1. It's hard to beat this one for awesomeness. When I was in college, someone was selling an extra ticket and I got to see Pink Floyd at Foxboro Stadium (when it was still called Foxboro). I was 12th row center stage. My ticket was under $50, and someone I knew had a ticket for later in the series and was in nosebleed seats. It was awesome.

2. I've seen Rush in concert in Providence. This was one of those situations where I had an internet friend who liked many of the same things I did. So, we would get together and play too many games of Mortal Kombat and go to concerts like Rush. That was nosebleed seats for me.

3. Weird Al. In Lowell. Any concert where it is aOK to get up, sing along, and dance your fool heart out is wonderful!

4. Marillion at the Somerville Theater. This is one of those weird situations where you've listened to the music but have no idea what the musicians look like. I almost left after the opening act, because I didn't know it was the opening act. Whoops! I did stick around, and got to listen to many wonderful songs.

5. Lollapalooza 1996. Once again a group of friend went to Lollapalooza, and I got to go too. The only groups I really knew at this were Metallica and Soundgarden. On the day we went, I also listened to Ben Folds Five and Psychotica. It was super hot, and I was sort of gothed out in a black body suit with fishnet mesh shoulders. Needless to say, I got a fishnet mesh sunburn that faded out and lasted all summer long.

6. Dream Theater and Blink Crotch. Dream Theater was at the Bank of America Pavillion and had two opening bands. One of those bands involved the lead singer standing with his legs straddling the blinking light from the drum kit. The opening bands were mostly forgettable (the other opening band had a lead singer who looked kind of like Bruce Banner).

7. Distant Worlds. Chocobo music and other Final Fantasy music. It was pretty awesome!

8. Carmen in Concert. One of my friends was in the chorus for this, so I saw it when the MIT group put it on a gazillion years ago.

9. Tiffany. I saw this with one of my friends at the Fleet Center (or whatever they were calling it at the time.. you know, where the Bruins play). It was shortly after I had knee surgery, so I was either just off crutches or was still on crutches with an air cast thingie. I was afraid that if I fell down that I would roll all the way down to the bottom. Splat!

Beyond that, I have been part of a lot of musical theater and now choirs (UU Church of Lexington right now). So, I have done concerts. The most recent one was this past weekend at the local farmer's market, where we sang to support Faith Feeds.

Singing with the church is awesome, because they do Music Sundays. Music was always one of my favorite things about church from when I went when I was a little kid, so being part of such a musical congregation is wonderful! This past Sunday we sang Kokomo and the Famine Song in addition to the more traditional spirituals and hymns.

If you add musicals I've seen, the list gets a lot longer. I've seen Les Mis, Into the Woods, Miss Saigon, Moving Out, and a few others. I've also seen a few plays and operas on the Boston Common. But frankly, I haven't seen a concert since seeing Dream Theater a few years ago. It's just not something I do on a regular basis.

27 May 2014

I've been trying to find a replacement for Donut King (goodness I loved that place). Doughnuts don't appear to be as big a thing here as they were in New England. On the other hand, it is a lot easier to find a milk shake here. Go figure.

This week's 10 for Tuesday is 10 things you did this weekend.

1. The first thing was driving practice.

2. The second thing was going to North Lime for doughnuts. I didn't get one this time around, because the special wasn't something I was interested in (see doughnut with a dinosaur shaped chicken nugget). Instead I had a peanut butter mocha. It is one of the better coffee drinks I've had, so it certainly isn't like I was deprived. And driving practice is much easier if you are going somewhere you want to go.

3. Gaming. I got to trip things and have it work. Fixing my character to make him more playable was totally worth it.

4. Walking the dog. There was a lot of walking in general.

5. Going to a Parent's meet up. We walked around the arboretum, which was pretty nice. We didn't see the huge leaves that were around the hospital, so we still don't know which plants those are.

6. Got my nails and toes done. The place was pretty nice, and there were massaging chairs.

7. Bruised my back... too much massaging chair.

8. Watched a video about sectioning an orange, and then sectioned a few less than stellar oranges. Huzzah!

9. Got a smidge of knitting in. Want to finish the sweater this week (before camp loopy starts), so I need to move from a smidge of knitting to a whack of knitting.

10. Cleaned the kitchen. There is still more kitchen to clean, but the floor is washed and one counter is completely clean. Hopefully I will have enough time to make the strawberry summer cake from Smitten Kitchen.

Bonus! 11. My husband put together a list of all of the perishable fruits and veggies, so I could more easily make sure they all got used during the course of the week. Last night that meant using the salad greens and all of the oranges. This morning, it meant making sure that an apple went into my lunch box. It is so much easier to eat healthily if you know what you have!

20 May 2014

Trying new things is a pet peeve of mine. I realized a few years ago that I would say that I didn't like something, and that people around me would say the same thing. Some of these things were things that they (or I) had never tried.

So, I stopped saying I hated something and made an effort to try something at least a couple of times a year. If I really hated something, that would be fine, but I had to at least try it. That attitude led me to trying avocado for the first time in forever, drinking a beer every now and then, and making new foods that I hadn't tried before.

It also led to durian. Obviously it isn't all good. However, trying new things and being open to trying new things has been one of the reasons behind trying baby led weaning with Q. So far it is working fine, and the foods being eaten are fairly varied and currently heavy on the fruits and vegetables.

Most of what I've tried in the past two years has been food related. As a vegetarian, I'm running out of food items to try!

So, in the next year, I'd like to try the following.

1. Go back to school. It is in the works. I am a transfer student for UKy, and will hopefully be registering for classes in July.

2. Train for a half marathon. Now, I've done half marathons before, so this sort of feels like a cop out, but as a new mother I've been finding that carving out the time is a little harder than I was expecting.

3. Make guacamole. I don't love avocado, but I no longer feel like I need to ask for it to not be included at restaurants. I've not used it in anything myself, so this year's ice cream party will include the avocado ice cream from the Perfect Scoop. But I should still try to make guacamole.

4. Complete the DIY project I found via Pinterest. The easy part is done; the DIY part remains.

5. Be kinder. It is far too easy for my lack of sleep to result in telling the dog to stop sniffing things when we go on our walks.

6. Wean myself off of coffee (starting next month; no, don't take it away from me!!!!)?

7. Take a photography class.

8. Improve on my knife skills (chop all the vegetables).

9. Have a functioning garden (this is already going better this year, because I'm getting great spinach production).

10. Use more yarn than I buy.

Some of these are stretch goals (I'm looking at you 7 and 10), but I'm trying to be gentle on myself, my family and our time. A lot of these items impact more than just me and I'm trying to be mindful of that.

15 April 2014

This morning we had snow. Not a lot of accumulation, but blustery. Walking Victor was an exercise in snow down the back of my sweat jacket in one direction and a calm winter storm (if any storm can be called calm) in the other. I got to work and unfortunately was not as healthy as I thought I was. I'm only not in bed, because Mr. Victor needs his ear meds and dinner, which normally happen closer to 7:30.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday were all in the 70s and 80s. Given I've had a lot of outdoor time lately, here are the 10 things I like to do outside.

1. Walk. Usually it is walking Victor, but with a little one I normally walk Victor while carrying Q. Of course, yesterday I decided to leave Q in the stroller, so he napped a bit while Victor and I visited all of the trees.

2. Eat ice cream. I haven't really found an ice cream shop within walking distance, but in Massachusetts we would walk to Dairy Freeze and get a scoop if we were doing a long walk. It is important to balance the benefits of walking after all.

3. Run. I haven't run in months (and months. I might have run out of fingers and toes for the months at this point), but I enjoy running, training for half marathons and 5Ks mostly.

4. Garden. I'm desperately bad at it. Now I have a brighter yard with fewer trees and a longer growing season, so I am trying again with spinach, broccoli, tomatoes and pumpkins. Oh, and a few onion sets to try and ward off the vermin who think my produce is their produce.

5. Knit. I still do it. It almost never happens outside, but I enjoy it no matter where it happens.

6. Farmer's markets. I haven't been to any of the markets in Lexington, but it is on the list of things to do.

7. Can I lie and say I love to drive? I don't really. I am still learning, so I mostly love what driving represents. Today it might have represented going home earlier (though probably not, because there is still only one car for our household), and in the future it represents trips to things like Squam, family visits and even the daily trek to work. Oh, and going through the drive through at Starbucks. Hey, carrots and sticks, carrots and sticks!

8. Grilling. I love the idea of eating outside or at least cooking outside when the weather is nice. We have a second hand grill that needs replacement parts before we can enjoy that.

9. Swimming. Growing up that meant the ocean. Here it will almost certainly mean pools.

10. Trips to the park. We went over the weekend and Q got to have his first time in the swings, going gently back and forth. It was a long trip walking, but we had a bit of a picnic lunch and Q had a lot of firsts. I had one of my firsts as well. First sunburn of the season.

19 March 2014

The past two weeks have been 10 things you do that your spouse doesn't do but could and 10 things that your spouse does that you could do but don't. What a mouthful. Since I didn't do the first one last week, my husband and I came up with a list. Now this is pretty light hearted, and doesn't reflect necessarily everything that one of us does or does not do. Just what we normally do.

Communication:I make words during normal conversation. My husband speaks this special language: Thingie. We've been together long enough that I'm sadly picking up Thingie as a second language. The flip side of this is that when I am alarmed or see some kind of dangerous situation, I don't use my words but speak in squawks or other non-word indications of danger.

Running far and fast are not skills that we share equally. I'm a slow and steady person and have run multiple half marathons. In the short term, my husband can run faster than me, though not for nearly as much time. Sadly, this would probably result in a very similar half marathon time for him, as he would probably walk for a bit and then sprint to catch up. Who knows!

I do most of the dishes. It's not that he cannot, but during the day he is mostly focused on Q and getting other things done. This is only a problem when the sink is full of dishes that I need to do before I wash pump and bottle dishes. Then I get a bit sad.

He can drive. I'm still learning. The world is going to be a more dangerous place once I have my license and don't need to have a qualified driver with me on the road.

General domestic things. I knit, sew buttons, hem (though I usually make him bring his pants to someone else to do, because I hate hemming).

My husband is the king of the 20 minute power nap. I have a hard time falling asleep, and when I nap it often (at least before baby) was a multi-hour affair.

Putting up with each other. I don't think I could put up with myself if I had a spouse who was just like me. I'm a bit difficult to get along with.

I drink coffee. He makes faces when I do so. 'Nuff said.

My husband is the exotherm in this relationship. I can use my feet even in the summer to cause suffering and cries of alarm.

I'm jealous of my husband's ability to go into a store or online and buy clothing based on a measurement number. Women's clothing sucks in that regard.

My husband has a better sense of rhythm than I do. Mine isn't nonexistant, but it definitely requires more practice and training. On the other hand, I can make my own (hideous) lyrics up for pretty much any song I've heard at least once.

My shoulder blades are very pointy. We joke that I can cut people with them.

He remembers bridge conventions. I remember weak twos and not much else.

And for reading this far: We like the vorpal hoagies. I make them and he eats them.

25 February 2014

Between my brother and some of my friends, it feels like the world has exploded with new babies. Q is only 21 weeks old, so the newness hasn't worn off of the experience. While things have calmed down a bit as I've learned the important job of being a parent, some things are still a bit more exciting than I was expecting. Of course, this week's prompt for 10 for Tuesday doesn't really have anything to do with parenting, knitting or knowing that there are new babies in the world. It's OK. The world is a wonderful place.

1. I feel happy. It's such a simple feeling and so easy to miss, but I get conversation (both at work and at home) and get to top those off with the best things in the world: baby hugs.

2. I feel overwhelmed. Not as much the parenting thing, though it is easy to borrow trouble for what might be issues in the future. I still want to knit and cook fun things and balancing those with baby care, dishes and the omnipresent laundry means that a lot of my normal fun things are just falling through the cracks. Not exactly a problem, but something I'm a little more aware of now than I was even a month ago.

3. I feel glad to do our taxes. Of course, this is mostly because my interaction with the taxes this year has been answering questions via email while my husband wrangles the tax software. And, well, the idea of a refund is always nice.

4. I feel like a member of a community. We've joined the local UU church. It's not something we would have necessarily done in Boston. Not because it was something we were completely uninclined to do, but we didn't drive and it was just inconvenient. I'm part of the choir, so I get out of the house once a week for music.

5. I feel grateful that I have friends here. We are all sharing the load. Watching the kids as a group makes the load easier for all.

6. I feel that motherhood (well, specifically breastfeeding motherhood) is teaching me to love water. I went from drinking a coffee and a soda each day and if I was lucky adding in a cup or two of water to averaging 10 cups of water a day. If I don't drink that much I'm very dry.

7. I feel like Lexington needs to learn how to deal with snow better. I know that this winter has been pretty unusual with the amount of snow and that normally around here the snow would just melt a day or two later, but the amount of snow days that my friends' kids have had is astounding and seems to be irritating everybody but the kids. Go figure.

8. I feel that this might be the first year where I manage to have a reasonable garden. My husband got a book from a Kickstarter that actually has a lot of the same information I remember from my mom's copy of Carrots Love Tomatoes (I don't want to think about how long ago I read that book). We're starting small. I have actually started some broccoli seeds, and in about 2 weeks I get to start the hot peppers and tomatoes. I'm hoping to actually have more than the 5 bell peppers and two tomatoes I managed to grow in Massachusetts in the past 4 years. Yeah, my yard was very shady...

9. I feel glad that I have Friday off. It's because of needed basement repairs, but it will still be nice to have a bit of a break. Heck, I might even make something!

10. I feel like I need more driving practice. I'm using a learner's permit. I need to practice, practice, practice if there is a chance that I might get my license in March (though I think my 180 days ends in May). Maybe we can do some of that also on Friday.

14 January 2014

Today is 10 for Tuesday, and while I do have 10 items that make me feel like a grown up (and I might pepper them in here), I really wanted to share a hat.

My best friend has two children, and I wasn't quite as much into knitting when they were born. Part of me feels bad that I didn't make them a cross-stitch project or knit something, but I was just getting into knitting and cross-stitch can take nearly forever. Now, more of my friends are having children, and many of them are getting knitted gifts. Last year it was a sweater set that did not fit longer than a sneeze and a baby blanket.

Baby blankets are my new go to project, because they don't need to be a specific size to be useful. However, one of our friends is having a girl and her "Internet name" is a bit Viking. Thus the hat.

I made this pattern (well, the boy version of it) years ago, before I was active on Ravelry. This time I made the girl version and, well, made the hair red for the red-headed step child of it all. Q was a terrific model!

I made the one year size and used Cascade Pacific in white, gray and orange. I used scrap yarn from a partial skein to make the ties at the ends of the braids.

My husband mailed the hat on Tuesday for the shower, because we just couldn't justify a long trek to Boston, and it was apparently one of the hits of the shower.

So, the pattern is Viking Girl Hat by Sarah Fama, and this is the second time I have bought the pattern (I couldn't find my original purchase or the file). The pattern is great because it includes two separate variants and sizes from newborn to adult.

However, the pattern sadly references a few things, like embroidery, which are not shown in the pattern. The designer also did not indicate the best way to affix the wings and braids to the hat and just said to sew them on.

I sewed the braids on at the top of the bobble section. The wings I sewed along the front edge and top of the stockinette sections, so the wings would be able to flair out.

4. Doing things I don't like on a daily basis. Right now, that is the dishes, at least once a day.

5. The day job as much as I love it makes me feel like a grown up.

6. Menu planning. Definitely this, because it is so much more grown up then scavenging from the freezer.

7. My coffee habit. It is bad enough that I need to find time to make more coffee concentrate, so I can save a few pennies making my own.

8. Learning to drive.

9. Owning a house and all of the requisite maintenance that entails.

10. Having friends scattered all over the place, because it makes getting together and maintaining ties more of an exercise in being thoughtful and taking time in a way that didn't feel as true when we were so close together.

08 January 2014

2013 was a busy year. I relocated with my family halfway cross the country. We sold a house and bought a new one. Our family increased in size, and my job changed. I knit a lot of things and got back into cross-stitch, and learned card weaving (though I still haven't bought the card weaving loom... and I should because it was a lot of fun). Picking 10 moments seems almost impossible, but there is a constant thread throughout the best times. Click to see the pictures all big.

1. Q was born near the end of the year. The labor was relatively quick and with the power of modern medicine even relatively painless.

Induction at 5 a.m. and a baby at 3 p.m. same day.

The common wisdom is that having a baby changes you. As trite as it is, it's true and it is true every day.

2. Being a new parent is exhausting, but well worth the effort.

Here Q is sporting my Ishbel as a baby blanket while being nestled in the nursing pillow. The days of fitting within the curve of the nursing pillow were quickly over.

I didn't really finish much other than feeding Q in the first weeks. I didn't want to move when he was cuddled up to me. Baby hugs really might be the best thing in the world (not that little kitty licks and purrs aren't awesome too).

3. Babies learn and grow every day, and Q is no exception. It wasn't long before he was grabbing at things and exploring the world around him. It is amazing what you can learn before you can scoot, roll over or crawl.

I had a bit of a learning moment when Q was first learning to grab. I was knitting over him. He was conked out on my lap, and then he woke up and grabbed at the yarn. Lesson learned. Now I can still knit while carrying him, but he needs to be propped against my chest so the yarn isn't passing into his field of view. I expect that will change in a month or so as well.

4. This baby hat was the first project I finished after Q was born. I went with my mom when she was visiting to ReBelle and I got a single skein of Koigu. It took a little longer to knit than normal, but not by much.

Here Q is also sporting my Spectra in progress, using a skein of Toil and Trouble yarn in Snapdragon and a skein of the SWTC sock yarn (the stuff with chitin or something else weird in it) in green. I call it my watermelon tourmaline Spectra, because the colors make me think of the state gemstone of Maine.

5. Q got so much bigger from week to week that some of the newborn pictures feel almost foreign. He has big flat feet, but my long grippy toes. It's nice to know he has something from me other than an almost perpetual skeptical expression.

Now, obviously this is the all baby network, but I still managed to get some knitting and other craft things worked on. Many of them aren't completed, because I have an intense problem with startitis. Whoops. Other items are gifts, and cannot be shown yet.

I remember doing a rotation back when cross-stitch was my primary craft, and I felt like I got so much done. I have tried adding that back to my arsenal, but for some reason it just doesn't feel like it works quite as well for knitting or multi-craft mode. Probably because some crafts are just so fast (knitting, weaving) that it makes it hard to downshift to the slower crafts.

My memories around this time include being grateful that there were two of us home, and that the stash of food in the freezer was a great idea.

6. Mr. Ice C. Scoops arrived this week (week 6). A gift for me and Q from me, it was one of the last items I bought in Boston. Mr. Scoops was made by Jen @ Zooguu for the shop window at Gather Here. I knew I was going to miss my friends from the shop and the nearly weekly craft nights (and brunches), so I wanted something to help remember.

Well, that and I didn't manage to snag a yeti from one of their previous shop windows.

Given how much I love ice cream, both to make and eat, this was a perfect fit.

7. Q isn't really allowed to watch television per se, but it was fun watching him man the remote.

Also, cue the skeptical expression again.

One of the flaws with maternity leave (I'll let my husband speak if he wishes about paternity leave) is that caring for a baby at this stage involves a lot of sitting around. And in my world that meant a lot of time on the iPad or a lot of time watching television. There were days I could feel my brain rotting, though it is getting better now that we're limiting our television watching.

This is also about when I realized that I wasn't going to be doing the half marathon in March. It wasn't a lack of time for exercise as much as a lack of appropriate clothing to exercise in. But 2015 I hope to be back in action. It's something I've missed.

8. The chair was a gift from coworkers and is awesome. Q doesn't have quite enough sit up to use it yet, but when he is in it he often is sporting his grumpy old man look. Not his fault that the Patriots were giving one of those games. You know, the ones that the Red Sox often give, where you are wondering the entire time if they are going to be able to pull it together and get it done.

Yeah. Those games.

I looked like that much of the game too.

9. Just after Thanksgiving Q was 2 months old. The time had passed so quickly and I was starting to look the end of my leave in the face (and occasionally with unattractive blind panic).

The play mat became a favorite place. A spot where he could (and can) grab things.

No photographs, but at this point he could still wear the Newborn Vertebrae that I made for him to wear, though the booties and hat I made to go with it were a bust from the get go.

Thanksgiving was my first lesson in how much cooking I can really do. I made many desserts for our multi-family feast, but it was a lot harder to make anything that took more than 30 minutes or so. The best dessert might have been the apple cider caramels from Smitten Kitchen (I also made a version using pomegranate juice), though the different batches of fudge were also pretty good.

10. A well baby!

Doctor visits are a pretty regular occurrence, but this was the first one that involved vaccinations where we were there (we didn't have to watch the vaccinations in the hospital). Sometimes I think the experience is harder on the parents, because Q cried but was quickly soothed. Something that took a bit longer for the two of us to get over.

That said, I'm still glad he got them. Less getting sick for us!

All in all, 2013 was a very baby focused year. I was pregnant (and thus thinking about baby things) for the first 3/4 of the year and then all of a sudden Q was here and my life changed. And it is all wonderful.